


Planes of Cleavage

by Drakey



Series: Truth [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Anakin Skywalker Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, F/M, Shatterpoints
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:26:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24733879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drakey/pseuds/Drakey
Summary: Mace Windu sees the most significant shatterpoint he ever has in his life, and he realizes all at once that no matter what he does, something precious will be broken.
Relationships: Mace Windu/The Jedi Code, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Series: Truth [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1700803
Comments: 2
Kudos: 74





	Planes of Cleavage

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place during Much Less Than The Lie. It's a retelling of part of the Council meeting from Mace Windu's perspective.

"Master Windu, feel their love in the Force, can you?"

Mace breathed in slowly, trying to center himself. It wasn't easy. This entire situation felt wrong. This happened sometimes, when a shatterpoint was looming ahead of him. This one felt huge, like anything he did about it could change the fate of the galaxy.

He probed at the bond between Skywalker and his wife. Love pulsed there, as strong as between most husbands and wives (which was to say, not nearly so deep and all-conquering as people liked to tell themselves, but most couples seemed to be able to make it work, except most couples weren't a Jedi and a senator).

"It's real," he admitted. "However it started, it's real." Skywalker and his wife sagged visibly.

"If Skywalker must leave the Order to be with his wife," Ki Adi Mundi said, "then upon my return to Coruscant, I believe I will turn in my lightsaber as well. I have a very large family, and I believe Skywalker may need the support, anyway." Mace felt the shatterpoint looming closer with every word. It was starting to come clearer.

"Many will leave the Order," Yoda said.

"Of course they will.” Obi-Wan seemed melancholy, and maybe a little wistful. He'd lost someone close to him, Mace knew. The Mandalorian woman, not so long ago. "Palpatine's war has almost broken us. He might have won if we hadn't acted in time. There are so few Jedi left, and so many of us are so broken. We need to rebuild."

"Nearly eight hundred years have I been a Jedi,” Yoda said, “and never have I seen so many of us touched by war. Always some there were, who took to battle. Crusaders, some Jedi have always been, but never all, never since the days of the Old Republic.” The future shimmered through Yoda's words, the shatterpoint's approach breaking over Mace. 

“Truly does Master Kenobi speak: nearly lost to Darth Sidious we did, and many Jedi, he has hurt. All Jedi, he has hurt. Heal the wounded we can, and comfort the deeper hurts, but deep runs the damage. The Jedi is the crystal of the Force. Cracked, we are. To build a lightsaber with a cracked crystal... foolish. If cut the crystal must be, then allow it we must, for when a crystal is not cut properly, shatter it does." Yoda leaned back in his chair. The other Jedi stared at him. Mace grappled with the direction of Yoda's words, the approach of the shatterpoint, and what it implied.

He had to know more. "Are you advocating the splitting of the Jedi Order?" Mace asked into the pregnant pause that followed Yoda's grim pronouncement. 

"Advocate? No. Admit, I do. Join the Lost Twenty, many more will. Terrible has this war been, and made soldiers of us it has. Come home from war, not all soldiers do. Even Jedi. Help those who wish to leave, we must." Yoda turned to Anakin, then to Ki. "Keep your lightsabers, you should. Strange times ahead there will be."

"You're afraid we'll need them," Anakin said. Mace followed his glance out the window. Probably looking at the Chancellor's office. It must be quite a dramatic scene up close, but Mace wasn't sure what Anakin hoped to see from so far away. Maybe he just liked the lights. The shatterpoint was here, the moment ringing with importance in the Force. 

There was no fear, only certainty. He saw the things he would break if he moved. He could insist on treating those leaving the order just like anyone else leaving. Hundreds of Jedi, cut off and alienated, disarmed, spied on, distrusted. It would break the whole galaxy, as badly as the rise of the Sith. Mace rejected that path entirely.

He could insist that the Jedi who left organize themselves, regulate themselves, and communicate regularly with everyone. It would break the Jedi, but the Republic would be fine. Down that path, strangely, lay the fall of the Hutts, as well. 

"There is darkness in the galaxy," Obi-Wan reminded them all. "Maul is still unaccounted for, and any number of other threats might want to get their hands on a former Jedi. I agree with Master Yoda."

Every direction he took would break something. Here lay the violent fall of the Republic, there loomed the slow tumble of the Jedi Order, beyond them was the shattering of regions, or the collapse of law and order. And in front of him, Anakin stood, nearly fallen, nearly broken, and Mace realized all at once that this was Jinn's Vergence, his Chosen One, the feeling of standing at the breaking point of history, as though all the galaxy was a great boulder perched precariously on top of a hill, and all it would take to set it rolling was a gentle nudge, only Mace could _choose_ which direction to push, and yet...

No matter what he did, he would lose something. So he aimed for the only target that wouldn't necessarily kill people when it broke.

The Order. And the path to that... lay through caution and patience. He spoke. "Skywalker has been influenced by a Sith Lord.” Mace held out Anakin's lightsaber and waved it once for emphasis. "I can accept the others keeping theirs, but he doesn't get this back until we're sure it's safe."

"You know what Anakin's skills are," Plo Koon said. "If he falls, a lightsaber won't make much difference in how dangerous he is. Give the weapon back to him, Mace."

"Not until we've had time to discuss this in a full Council. I'm sorry. I don't use my privilege as Master of the Order often, but I'm using it now. None of you can feel how close he is to the Dark Side." Mace drew into himself a little. Patience and caution weren't exactly what he wanted. He needed the Code. He wanted to drum Skywalker out, to pull the Order back together with everything he had, to fight and rail and scream until he had fixed it all, but that way lay the worst outcomes of all. "We can't trust that Skywalker and the senator will be safe away from the temple tonight. You two will stay here until the council says it's safe. And when that happens, I may even return your weapon, Skywalker."

Most of them seemed to have expected him to argue. Splintering the Jedi Order couldn't be something Mace Windu was in favor of, after all. But Yoda was right. The blow had come. It was time to cleave or shatter. And the blow had to be struck exactly right. Planes of cleavage were unforgiving, and as the shatterpoint drifted away behind him, Mace felt the cracks in the Force, stretching far out ahead, too far for him to understand, too far for him to predict, except that he knew the Jedi would slowly fall to pieces. No dead Republic, no violent collapse, no broken galaxy, but a place that Mace was afraid of.

The Inevitable would come. He would just have to face it.


End file.
